The present invention relates to a method for the mechanical compensation of moment sensitivity in shear beam transducers. The invention also relates to shear beam transducers which have been compensated in the mechanical manner disclosed herein.
The load sensitivity of a shear beam transducer should be ideally a constant value for a corresponding constant load. However, such constant relationship between the load and the sensitivity or output of the transducer is subject to certain influences which adversely affect the load sensitivity and thus the respective output which is indicated in millivolts per volts. For example, the constant relationship between the load and output is assured only if the load is applied to the so-called point of load application if the latter is located on the optimal point of load application axis. If the actual point of load application shifts away from the optimal point of load application, the output of the transducer may vary in an undesirable manner in one or the other direction. In other words, the output of the transducer may be larger or smaller than it should be for the given load value. This deviation is referred to in this disclosure as the moment sensitivity of the shear beam transducer. It is desirable to minimize this moment sensitivity and ideally to reduce it to zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,603 discloses an electrical compensating method for minimizing this moment sensitivity of shear beam transducers. By the electrical compensation disclosed in said U.S. Patent the shear beam transducer becomes relatively insensitive to variations in the point of load application, or rather, to deviations of the actual point of load application from the optimal point of load application.